SummaryThis proposal proceeds from an anomaly. Apartheid routinely breached the separation that it names. Whereas the South African regime was deeply isolationist in international terms, new research links it to the Cold War and decolonization. Yet this trend does not consider sufficiently that the global contest over the meaning of apartheid and resistance to it occurs on the terrain of culture. My project argues that studying the global circulation of South African cultural formations in the apartheid era provides novel historiographic leverage over Western liberalism during the Cold War. It recasts apartheid as an apparatus of transnational cultural production, turning existing historiography inside out. This study seeks:
• To provide the first systematic account of the deterritorialization of “apartheid”—as political signifier and as apparatus generating circuits of transnational cultural production.
• To analyze these itinerant cultural formations across media and national borders, articulating new intersections.
• To map the itineraries of major South African exiles, where exile is taken to be a system of interlinked circuits of affiliation and cultural production.
• To revise the historiography of states other than South Africa through the lens of deterritorialized apartheid-era formations at their respective destinations.
• To show how apartheid reveals contradictions within Western liberalism during the Cold War, with special reference to racial inequality.
Methodologically, I introduce the model of thick convergence to analyze three periods:
1. Kliptown & Bandung: Novel possibilities, 1948-1960.
2. Sharpeville & Memphis: Drumming up resistance, 1960-1976.
3. From Soweto to Berlin: Spectacle at the barricades, 1976-1990.
Each explores a cultural dominant in the form of texts, soundscapes or photographs. My work stands at the frontier of transnational research, furnishing powerful new insights into why South Africa matters on the stage of global history.

This proposal proceeds from an anomaly. Apartheid routinely breached the separation that it names. Whereas the South African regime was deeply isolationist in international terms, new research links it to the Cold War and decolonization. Yet this trend does not consider sufficiently that the global contest over the meaning of apartheid and resistance to it occurs on the terrain of culture. My project argues that studying the global circulation of South African cultural formations in the apartheid era provides novel historiographic leverage over Western liberalism during the Cold War. It recasts apartheid as an apparatus of transnational cultural production, turning existing historiography inside out. This study seeks:
• To provide the first systematic account of the deterritorialization of “apartheid”—as political signifier and as apparatus generating circuits of transnational cultural production.
• To analyze these itinerant cultural formations across media and national borders, articulating new intersections.
• To map the itineraries of major South African exiles, where exile is taken to be a system of interlinked circuits of affiliation and cultural production.
• To revise the historiography of states other than South Africa through the lens of deterritorialized apartheid-era formations at their respective destinations.
• To show how apartheid reveals contradictions within Western liberalism during the Cold War, with special reference to racial inequality.
Methodologically, I introduce the model of thick convergence to analyze three periods:
1. Kliptown & Bandung: Novel possibilities, 1948-1960.
2. Sharpeville & Memphis: Drumming up resistance, 1960-1976.
3. From Soweto to Berlin: Spectacle at the barricades, 1976-1990.
Each explores a cultural dominant in the form of texts, soundscapes or photographs. My work stands at the frontier of transnational research, furnishing powerful new insights into why South Africa matters on the stage of global history.

Max ERC Funding

1 861 238 €

Duration

Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30

Project acronymBeyondtheElite

ProjectBeyond the Elite: Jewish Daily Life in Medieval Europe

Researcher (PI)Elisheva Baumgarten

Host Institution (HI)THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

Call DetailsConsolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2015-CoG

SummaryThe two fundamental challenges of this project are the integration of medieval Jewries and their histories within the framework of European history without undermining their distinct communal status and the creation of a history of everyday medieval Jewish life that includes those who were not part of the learned elite. The study will focus on the Jewish communities of northern Europe (roughly modern Germany, northern France and England) from 1100-1350. From the mid-thirteenth century these medieval Jewish communities were subject to growing persecution. The approaches proposed to access daily praxis seek to highlight tangible dimensions of religious life rather than the more common study of ideologies to date. This task is complex because the extant sources in Hebrew as well as those in Latin and vernacular were written by the learned elite and will require a broad survey of multiple textual and material sources.
Four main strands will be examined and combined:
1. An outline of the strata of Jewish society, better defining the elites and other groups.
2. A study of select communal and familial spaces such as the house, the synagogue, the market place have yet to be examined as social spaces.
3. Ritual and urban rhythms especially the annual cycle, connecting between Jewish and Christian environments.
4. Material culture, as objects were used by Jews and Christians alike.
Aspects of material culture, the physical environment and urban rhythms are often described as “neutral” yet will be mined to demonstrate how they exemplified difference while being simultaneously ubiquitous in local cultures. The deterioration of relations between Jews and Christians will provide a gauge for examining change during this period. The final stage of the project will include comparative case studies of other Jewish communities. I expect my findings will inform scholars of medieval culture at large and promote comparative methodologies for studying other minority ethnic groups

The two fundamental challenges of this project are the integration of medieval Jewries and their histories within the framework of European history without undermining their distinct communal status and the creation of a history of everyday medieval Jewish life that includes those who were not part of the learned elite. The study will focus on the Jewish communities of northern Europe (roughly modern Germany, northern France and England) from 1100-1350. From the mid-thirteenth century these medieval Jewish communities were subject to growing persecution. The approaches proposed to access daily praxis seek to highlight tangible dimensions of religious life rather than the more common study of ideologies to date. This task is complex because the extant sources in Hebrew as well as those in Latin and vernacular were written by the learned elite and will require a broad survey of multiple textual and material sources.
Four main strands will be examined and combined:
1. An outline of the strata of Jewish society, better defining the elites and other groups.
2. A study of select communal and familial spaces such as the house, the synagogue, the market place have yet to be examined as social spaces.
3. Ritual and urban rhythms especially the annual cycle, connecting between Jewish and Christian environments.
4. Material culture, as objects were used by Jews and Christians alike.
Aspects of material culture, the physical environment and urban rhythms are often described as “neutral” yet will be mined to demonstrate how they exemplified difference while being simultaneously ubiquitous in local cultures. The deterioration of relations between Jews and Christians will provide a gauge for examining change during this period. The final stage of the project will include comparative case studies of other Jewish communities. I expect my findings will inform scholars of medieval culture at large and promote comparative methodologies for studying other minority ethnic groups

Max ERC Funding

1 941 688 €

Duration

Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2021-10-31

Project acronymCBTC

ProjectThe Resurgence in Wage Inequality and Technological Change: A New Approach

Researcher (PI)Tali Kristal

Host Institution (HI)UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2015-STG

SummarySocial-science explanations for rising wage inequality have reached a dead end. Most economists argue that computerization has been primarily responsible, while on the other side of the argument are sociologists and political scientists who stress the role of political forces in the evolution process of wages. I would like to use my knowledge and experience to come up with an original theory on the complex dynamics between technology and politics in order to solve two unsettled questions regarding the role of computerization in rising wage inequality: First, how can computerization, which diffused simultaneously in rich countries, explain the divergent inequality trends in Europe and the United States? Second, what are the mechanisms behind the well-known observed positive correlation between computers and earnings?
To answer the first question, I develop a new institutional agenda stating that politics, broadly defined, mitigates the effects of technological change on wages by stimulating norms of fair pay and equity. To answer the second question, I propose a truly novel perspective that conceptualizes the earnings advantage that derives from computerization around access to and control of information on the production process. Capitalizing on this new perspective, I develop a new approach to measuring computerization to capture the form of workers’ interaction with computers at work, and build a research strategy for analysing the effect of computerization on wages across countries and workplaces, and over time.
This research project challenges the common understanding of technology’s role in producing economic inequality, and would thereby significantly impact all of the abovementioned disciplines, which are debating over the upswing in wage inequality, as well as public policy, which discusses what should be done to confront the resurgence of income inequality.

Social-science explanations for rising wage inequality have reached a dead end. Most economists argue that computerization has been primarily responsible, while on the other side of the argument are sociologists and political scientists who stress the role of political forces in the evolution process of wages. I would like to use my knowledge and experience to come up with an original theory on the complex dynamics between technology and politics in order to solve two unsettled questions regarding the role of computerization in rising wage inequality: First, how can computerization, which diffused simultaneously in rich countries, explain the divergent inequality trends in Europe and the United States? Second, what are the mechanisms behind the well-known observed positive correlation between computers and earnings?
To answer the first question, I develop a new institutional agenda stating that politics, broadly defined, mitigates the effects of technological change on wages by stimulating norms of fair pay and equity. To answer the second question, I propose a truly novel perspective that conceptualizes the earnings advantage that derives from computerization around access to and control of information on the production process. Capitalizing on this new perspective, I develop a new approach to measuring computerization to capture the form of workers’ interaction with computers at work, and build a research strategy for analysing the effect of computerization on wages across countries and workplaces, and over time.
This research project challenges the common understanding of technology’s role in producing economic inequality, and would thereby significantly impact all of the abovementioned disciplines, which are debating over the upswing in wage inequality, as well as public policy, which discusses what should be done to confront the resurgence of income inequality.

Max ERC Funding

1 495 091 €

Duration

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Project acronymChangeBehavNeuro

ProjectNovel Mechanism of Behavioural Change

Researcher (PI)Tom SCHONBERG

Host Institution (HI)TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2016-STG

SummaryUnderstanding how values of different options that lead to choice are represented in the brain is a basic scientific question with far reaching implications. I recently showed that by the mere-association of a cue and a button press we could influence preferences of snack food items up to two months following a single training session lasting less than an hour. This novel behavioural change manipulation cannot be explained by any of the current learning theories, as external reinforcement was not used in the process, nor was the context of the decision changed. Current choice theories focus on goal directed behaviours where the value of the outcome guides choice, versus habit-based behaviours where an action is repeated up to the point that the value of the outcome no longer guides choice. However, in this novel task training via the involvement of low-level visual, auditory and motor mechanisms influenced high-level choice behaviour. Thus, the far-reaching goal of this project is to study the mechanism, by which low-level sensory, perceptual and motor neural processes underlie value representation and change in the human brain even in the absence of external reinforcement. I will use behavioural, eye-gaze and functional MRI experiments to test how low-level features influence the neural representation of value. I will then test how they interact with the known striatal representation of reinforced behavioural change, which has been the main focus of research thus far. Finally, I will address the basic question of dynamic neural plasticity and if neural signatures during training predict long term success of sustained behavioural change. This research aims at a paradigmatic shift in the field of learning and decision-making, leading to the development of novel interventions with potential societal impact of helping those suffering from health-injuring behaviours such as addictions, eating or mood disorders, all in need of a long lasting behavioural change.

Understanding how values of different options that lead to choice are represented in the brain is a basic scientific question with far reaching implications. I recently showed that by the mere-association of a cue and a button press we could influence preferences of snack food items up to two months following a single training session lasting less than an hour. This novel behavioural change manipulation cannot be explained by any of the current learning theories, as external reinforcement was not used in the process, nor was the context of the decision changed. Current choice theories focus on goal directed behaviours where the value of the outcome guides choice, versus habit-based behaviours where an action is repeated up to the point that the value of the outcome no longer guides choice. However, in this novel task training via the involvement of low-level visual, auditory and motor mechanisms influenced high-level choice behaviour. Thus, the far-reaching goal of this project is to study the mechanism, by which low-level sensory, perceptual and motor neural processes underlie value representation and change in the human brain even in the absence of external reinforcement. I will use behavioural, eye-gaze and functional MRI experiments to test how low-level features influence the neural representation of value. I will then test how they interact with the known striatal representation of reinforced behavioural change, which has been the main focus of research thus far. Finally, I will address the basic question of dynamic neural plasticity and if neural signatures during training predict long term success of sustained behavioural change. This research aims at a paradigmatic shift in the field of learning and decision-making, leading to the development of novel interventions with potential societal impact of helping those suffering from health-injuring behaviours such as addictions, eating or mood disorders, all in need of a long lasting behavioural change.

Max ERC Funding

1 500 000 €

Duration

Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2021-12-31

Project acronymDIASPORAINTRANSITION

ProjectA Diaspora in Transition - Cultural and Religious Changes in Western Sephardic Communities in the Early Modern Period

Researcher (PI)Yosef Mauricio Kaplan

Host Institution (HI)THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

Call DetailsAdvanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406

SummaryThe communities of the Western Sephardic Diaspora were founded in the 16th and 17th centuries by New Christians from Iberia who returned to Judaism that had been abandoned by their ancestors in the late Middle Ages. This project will concentrate on the changes in the religious conceptions and behavior as well as the cultural patterns of the communities of Amsterdam, Hamburg, Leghorn, London, and Bordeaux. We will analyze the vigorous activity of their leaders to set the boundaries of their new religious identity in comparison to the policy of several Christian “communities of belief,” which went into exile following religious persecution in their homelands. We will also examine the changes in the attitude toward Judaism during the 17th century in certain segments of the Sephardic Diaspora: rather than a normative system covering every area of life, Judaism came to be seen as a system of faith restricted to the religious sphere. We will seek to explain the extent to which this significant change influenced their institutions and social behaviour. This study will provide us with better understanding of the place of the Jews in European society. At the same time, we will subject a central series of concepts in the historiographical discourse of the Early Modern Period to critical analysis: confessionalization, disciplinary revolution, civilizing process, affective individualism, etc. This phase of the research will be based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of many hundreds of documents, texts and the material remains of these communities. Using sociological and anthropological models, we will analyze ceremonies and rituals described at length in the sources, the social and cultural meaning of the architecture of the Sephardic synagogues of that time, and of other visual symbols.

The communities of the Western Sephardic Diaspora were founded in the 16th and 17th centuries by New Christians from Iberia who returned to Judaism that had been abandoned by their ancestors in the late Middle Ages. This project will concentrate on the changes in the religious conceptions and behavior as well as the cultural patterns of the communities of Amsterdam, Hamburg, Leghorn, London, and Bordeaux. We will analyze the vigorous activity of their leaders to set the boundaries of their new religious identity in comparison to the policy of several Christian “communities of belief,” which went into exile following religious persecution in their homelands. We will also examine the changes in the attitude toward Judaism during the 17th century in certain segments of the Sephardic Diaspora: rather than a normative system covering every area of life, Judaism came to be seen as a system of faith restricted to the religious sphere. We will seek to explain the extent to which this significant change influenced their institutions and social behaviour. This study will provide us with better understanding of the place of the Jews in European society. At the same time, we will subject a central series of concepts in the historiographical discourse of the Early Modern Period to critical analysis: confessionalization, disciplinary revolution, civilizing process, affective individualism, etc. This phase of the research will be based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of many hundreds of documents, texts and the material remains of these communities. Using sociological and anthropological models, we will analyze ceremonies and rituals described at length in the sources, the social and cultural meaning of the architecture of the Sephardic synagogues of that time, and of other visual symbols.

Max ERC Funding

1 671 200 €

Duration

Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28

Project acronymDIGITALBABY

ProjectThe emergence of understanding from the combination of innate mechanisms and visual experience

Researcher (PI)Shimon Ullman

Host Institution (HI)WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE

Call DetailsAdvanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407

SummaryThe goal of this research initiative is to construct large-scale computational modeling of how knowledge of the world emerges from the combination of innate mechanisms and visual experience. The ultimate goal is a ‘digital baby’ model which, through perception and interaction with the world, develops on its own representations of complex concepts that allow it to understand the world around it, in terms of objects, object categories, events, agents, actions, goals, social interactions, etc. A wealth of empirical research in the cognitive sciences have studied how natural concepts in these domains are acquired spontaneously and efficiently from perceptual experience, but a major open challenge is an understating of the processes and computations involved by rigorous testable models.
To deal with this challenge we propose a novel methodology based on two components. The first, ‘computational Nativism’, is a computational theory of cognitively and biologically plausible innate structures , which guide the system along specific paths through its acquisition of knowledge, to continuously acquire meaningful concepts, which can be significant to the observer, but statistically inconspicuous in the sensory input. The second, ‘embedded interpretation’ is a new way of acquiring extended learning and interpretation processes. This is obtained by placing perceptual inference mechanisms within a broader perception-action loop, where the actions in the loop are not overt actions, but internal operation over internal representation. The results will provide new modeling and understanding of the age-old problem of how innate mechanisms and perception are combined in human cognition, and may lay foundation for a major research direction dealing with computational cognitive development.

The goal of this research initiative is to construct large-scale computational modeling of how knowledge of the world emerges from the combination of innate mechanisms and visual experience. The ultimate goal is a ‘digital baby’ model which, through perception and interaction with the world, develops on its own representations of complex concepts that allow it to understand the world around it, in terms of objects, object categories, events, agents, actions, goals, social interactions, etc. A wealth of empirical research in the cognitive sciences have studied how natural concepts in these domains are acquired spontaneously and efficiently from perceptual experience, but a major open challenge is an understating of the processes and computations involved by rigorous testable models.
To deal with this challenge we propose a novel methodology based on two components. The first, ‘computational Nativism’, is a computational theory of cognitively and biologically plausible innate structures , which guide the system along specific paths through its acquisition of knowledge, to continuously acquire meaningful concepts, which can be significant to the observer, but statistically inconspicuous in the sensory input. The second, ‘embedded interpretation’ is a new way of acquiring extended learning and interpretation processes. This is obtained by placing perceptual inference mechanisms within a broader perception-action loop, where the actions in the loop are not overt actions, but internal operation over internal representation. The results will provide new modeling and understanding of the age-old problem of how innate mechanisms and perception are combined in human cognition, and may lay foundation for a major research direction dealing with computational cognitive development.

Max ERC Funding

1 647 175 €

Duration

Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-05-31

Project acronymDynamic Delegation

ProjectImplications of the Dynamic Nature of Portfolio Delegation

Researcher (PI)Ron Kaniel

Host Institution (HI)INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER (IDC) HERZLIYA

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH1, ERC-2012-StG_20111124

SummaryThe asset management industry is a 60 trillion euros industry world wide, with a ratio of assets under management by asset managers to GDP around 100 percent. Despite the prominence of financial intermediaries in financial markets, our understanding of the portfolio delegation relationship, and its equilibrium asset pricing and contracting implications is at its infancy. The recent financial crisis has further underscored the importance of better understanding the incentives of financial intermediaries, the distortions induced by these incentives, the contracts that can help mitigate these distortions, and the impact of their trading on asset pricing dynamics.
One key feature that is at the core of the asset management relationship is its dynamic nature: investors can, and do, periodically re-allocate funds between managers and between funds and other investment vehicles. The magnitude of fund flows, both over time and accross funds at a given point in time, have been shown to be quantitatively large relative to assets under management. The ability of investors to quickly pull money out of funds at a time of crisis can have significant ramifications for the stability of the financial system.
Understanding implications of the dynamic nature of the delegation relationship is imperative in order to understand multiple aspects related to delegation and financial markets at large, including: risk taking behavior by funds; welfare implications for investors who invest in funds; what regulatory restrictions should be imposed on contracts; the evolution, past and future, of the asset management industry; securities return dynamics.
The objective is to develope models that will incorporate dynamic flows in settings that will allow studying implications and deriving empirical predictions on multiple dimensions: portfolio choice; optimal contracting; distribution of assets across funds; equilibrium asset pricing dynamics.

The asset management industry is a 60 trillion euros industry world wide, with a ratio of assets under management by asset managers to GDP around 100 percent. Despite the prominence of financial intermediaries in financial markets, our understanding of the portfolio delegation relationship, and its equilibrium asset pricing and contracting implications is at its infancy. The recent financial crisis has further underscored the importance of better understanding the incentives of financial intermediaries, the distortions induced by these incentives, the contracts that can help mitigate these distortions, and the impact of their trading on asset pricing dynamics.
One key feature that is at the core of the asset management relationship is its dynamic nature: investors can, and do, periodically re-allocate funds between managers and between funds and other investment vehicles. The magnitude of fund flows, both over time and accross funds at a given point in time, have been shown to be quantitatively large relative to assets under management. The ability of investors to quickly pull money out of funds at a time of crisis can have significant ramifications for the stability of the financial system.
Understanding implications of the dynamic nature of the delegation relationship is imperative in order to understand multiple aspects related to delegation and financial markets at large, including: risk taking behavior by funds; welfare implications for investors who invest in funds; what regulatory restrictions should be imposed on contracts; the evolution, past and future, of the asset management industry; securities return dynamics.
The objective is to develope models that will incorporate dynamic flows in settings that will allow studying implications and deriving empirical predictions on multiple dimensions: portfolio choice; optimal contracting; distribution of assets across funds; equilibrium asset pricing dynamics.

SummaryThe vast majority of published research on the impact of school interventions has examined their effects on short-run outcomes, primarily test scores. While important, a possibly deeper question of interest to society is the impact of such interventions on long-run life outcomes. This is a critical question because the ultimate goal of education is to improve lifetime well-being. Recent research has begun to look at this issue but much work remains to be done, particularly with regard to the long-term effects of interventions explicitly targeting improvement in general quality and students’ educational attainment. This proposal examines the impact of seven different schooling interventions – teachers’ quality, school quality, remedial education, school choice, teacher incentive payments, students' conditional cash transfers and an experiment with an increase in the return to schooling – on long-run life outcomes, including educational attainment, employment, income, marriage and fertility, crime and welfare dependency. To address this important question I will exploit unique data from seven experimental programs and natural experiments implemented simultaneously at different schools in Israel. All programs were successful in achieving their short-term objectives, though the cost of the programs varied. This undertaking presents a unique context with unusual data and very compelling empirical settings. I will examine whether these programs also achieved a longer-term measure of success by improving students’ life outcomes. Another unique feature of the proposed study is that the interventions vary widely and touch on some emergent educational trends. The body of empirical evidence from this study will provide a more complete picture of the individual and social returns from these educational interventions, and will allow policymakers to make more informed decisions when deciding which educational programs lead to the most beneficial use of limited school resources.

The vast majority of published research on the impact of school interventions has examined their effects on short-run outcomes, primarily test scores. While important, a possibly deeper question of interest to society is the impact of such interventions on long-run life outcomes. This is a critical question because the ultimate goal of education is to improve lifetime well-being. Recent research has begun to look at this issue but much work remains to be done, particularly with regard to the long-term effects of interventions explicitly targeting improvement in general quality and students’ educational attainment. This proposal examines the impact of seven different schooling interventions – teachers’ quality, school quality, remedial education, school choice, teacher incentive payments, students' conditional cash transfers and an experiment with an increase in the return to schooling – on long-run life outcomes, including educational attainment, employment, income, marriage and fertility, crime and welfare dependency. To address this important question I will exploit unique data from seven experimental programs and natural experiments implemented simultaneously at different schools in Israel. All programs were successful in achieving their short-term objectives, though the cost of the programs varied. This undertaking presents a unique context with unusual data and very compelling empirical settings. I will examine whether these programs also achieved a longer-term measure of success by improving students’ life outcomes. Another unique feature of the proposed study is that the interventions vary widely and touch on some emergent educational trends. The body of empirical evidence from this study will provide a more complete picture of the individual and social returns from these educational interventions, and will allow policymakers to make more informed decisions when deciding which educational programs lead to the most beneficial use of limited school resources.

Max ERC Funding

1 519 000 €

Duration

Start date: 2013-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30

Project acronymEMODHEBREW

ProjectThe emergence of Modern Hebrew as a case-study of linguistic discontinuity

Researcher (PI)Edit Doron

Host Institution (HI)THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM

Call DetailsAdvanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2016-ADG

SummaryThe pioneering enterprise I propose is the study of a particular type of linguistic discontinuity – language revival – inspired by the revival of Hebrew at the end of the 19th century. The historical and sociocultural dimensions the revival have been studied before, but not its linguistic dimensions. My main aim is to construct a model of the linguistic factors which have shaped the revival of Hebrew. I expect this model to provide clues for the understanding of the process of language revival in general. For a language to be revived, a new grammar must be created by its native speakers. I hypothesize that the new grammar is formed by some of the general principles which also govern other better known cases of linguistic discontinuity (creoles, mixed languages, emergent sign languages etc.). The model I will develop will lay the foundation for a new subfield within the study of discontinuity – the study of language revival. I will start with careful work of documenting the development of the grammar of Modern Hebrew, in particular its syntax, something which has not been done systematically before. One product of the project will be a linguistic application for the documentation and annotation of the novel syntactic constructions of Modern Hebrew, their sources in previous stages of Hebrew and in the languages with which Modern Hebrew was in contact at the time of the revival, and the development of these constructions since the beginning of the revival until the present time. The linguistic application will be made available on the web for other linguists to use and to contribute to. The institution of an expanding data-base of the syntactic innovations of Modern Hebrew which comprises both documentation/ annotation and theoretical modeling which could be applied to other languages makes this an extremely ambitious proposal with potentially wide-reaching ramifications for the revival and revitalization of the languages of ethno-linguistic minorities world wide.

The pioneering enterprise I propose is the study of a particular type of linguistic discontinuity – language revival – inspired by the revival of Hebrew at the end of the 19th century. The historical and sociocultural dimensions the revival have been studied before, but not its linguistic dimensions. My main aim is to construct a model of the linguistic factors which have shaped the revival of Hebrew. I expect this model to provide clues for the understanding of the process of language revival in general. For a language to be revived, a new grammar must be created by its native speakers. I hypothesize that the new grammar is formed by some of the general principles which also govern other better known cases of linguistic discontinuity (creoles, mixed languages, emergent sign languages etc.). The model I will develop will lay the foundation for a new subfield within the study of discontinuity – the study of language revival. I will start with careful work of documenting the development of the grammar of Modern Hebrew, in particular its syntax, something which has not been done systematically before. One product of the project will be a linguistic application for the documentation and annotation of the novel syntactic constructions of Modern Hebrew, their sources in previous stages of Hebrew and in the languages with which Modern Hebrew was in contact at the time of the revival, and the development of these constructions since the beginning of the revival until the present time. The linguistic application will be made available on the web for other linguists to use and to contribute to. The institution of an expanding data-base of the syntactic innovations of Modern Hebrew which comprises both documentation/ annotation and theoretical modeling which could be applied to other languages makes this an extremely ambitious proposal with potentially wide-reaching ramifications for the revival and revitalization of the languages of ethno-linguistic minorities world wide.

Max ERC Funding

2 498 750 €

Duration

Start date: 2017-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30

Project acronymEmotions in Conflict

ProjectDirect and Indirect Emotion Regulation as a New Path of Conflict Resolution

Researcher (PI)Eran Halperin

Host Institution (HI)INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER (IDC) HERZLIYA

Call DetailsStarting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2013-StG

SummaryIntractable conflicts are one of the gravest challenges to both humanity and science. These conflicts are initiated and perpetuated by people; therefore changing people's hearts and minds constitutes a huge step towards resolution. Research on emotions in conflicts has led to the realization that intergroup emotions are critical to conflict dynamics. This project’s intrinsic question is whether and how intergroup emotions can be regulated to alter attitudes and behavior towards peace. I offer an innovative path, using two strategies of emotion regulation. The first is Direct Emotion Regulation, where traditional, effective emotion regulation strategies can be used to change intergroup emotional experiences and subsequently political positions in conflict situations. The second, Indirect Emotion Regulation, serves to implicitly alter concrete cognitive appraisals, thus changing attitudes by changing discrete emotions. This is the first attempt ever to integrate psychological aggregated knowledge on emotion regulation with conflict resolution. I propose 16 studies, conducted in the context of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Seven studies will focus on direct emotion regulation, reducing intergroup anger and hatred, while 9 studies will focus on indirect regulation, aspiring to reduce fear and despair. In both paths, correlational and in-lab experimental studies will be used to refine adequate strategies of down regulating destructive emotions, the results of which will be used to develop innovative, theory-driven education and media interventions that will be tested utilizing wide scale experience sampling methodology. This project aspires to bridge the gap between basic and applied science, creating a pioneering, interdisciplinary framework which contributes to existing knowledge on emotion regulation in conflict and implements ways to apply it in real-world circumstances.

Intractable conflicts are one of the gravest challenges to both humanity and science. These conflicts are initiated and perpetuated by people; therefore changing people's hearts and minds constitutes a huge step towards resolution. Research on emotions in conflicts has led to the realization that intergroup emotions are critical to conflict dynamics. This project’s intrinsic question is whether and how intergroup emotions can be regulated to alter attitudes and behavior towards peace. I offer an innovative path, using two strategies of emotion regulation. The first is Direct Emotion Regulation, where traditional, effective emotion regulation strategies can be used to change intergroup emotional experiences and subsequently political positions in conflict situations. The second, Indirect Emotion Regulation, serves to implicitly alter concrete cognitive appraisals, thus changing attitudes by changing discrete emotions. This is the first attempt ever to integrate psychological aggregated knowledge on emotion regulation with conflict resolution. I propose 16 studies, conducted in the context of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Seven studies will focus on direct emotion regulation, reducing intergroup anger and hatred, while 9 studies will focus on indirect regulation, aspiring to reduce fear and despair. In both paths, correlational and in-lab experimental studies will be used to refine adequate strategies of down regulating destructive emotions, the results of which will be used to develop innovative, theory-driven education and media interventions that will be tested utilizing wide scale experience sampling methodology. This project aspires to bridge the gap between basic and applied science, creating a pioneering, interdisciplinary framework which contributes to existing knowledge on emotion regulation in conflict and implements ways to apply it in real-world circumstances.